my spanish is pretty poor, but i know enough to realize vladzur is wondering if it would be possible add translation somewhere with the descriptions / comments. he asked also if this would be very complex. bram will let you know for sure, but i believe it would be quite a big task . . . they do create technology for this (libraries, APIs, etc) but they are hard to impliment and they do a nominal job with the translations, to say the least . . .

because all the descriptions are in english - and so are the tags - it's impossible to translate everything. I'm planning to translate the front page and the "what is freesound" to spanish, but that's it... The international language of the internet is english, so that's what we decided to use.

because all the descriptions are in english - and so are the tags - it's impossible to translate everything. I'm planning to translate the front page and the "what is freesound" to spanish, but that's it... The international language of the internet is english, so that's what we decided to use.

on behalf of english speakers who agree with me, i also apologize. i grew up with english in america, and i learned some spanish in high school. english is one the most backwards and confusing languages to learn. the romantic languages are much more effecient and useful. but alas, english seems to dominate . . .

(in fact, I just used Babel Fish to translate the above, because my Spanish abilities are negligible - in School in the UK we learned a small amount of French and a small amount of German, and the few phrases of Spanish, Italian, Greek, Cantonese I know have been picked up on my travels. I can order a beer, say thank you, ask for a bill in too many languages to be healthy, but beyond that I struggle)

What I would say in defence of English is that it remains remarkably complex mainly due to the fact that it was formed over centuries by various invasions of Britain (by everybody in Europe at one time or another) bringing new phrases, descriptions, words and syntax with each wave and each of these dominating forces has left it's imprint on English in the form of words still commonly in use today. So whereas some other European languages may only have a single word of description in their vocabulary, English typically can have six, seven, eight or more all derived from their original languages, be it Gallic, Latin, Greek, Germanic, Nordic, Celtic, Irish, Pictish, Briton. This is what helps to make English such a complex language to learn (along with its reverse sentence structure in relation to other European languages) - native English speakers tend to use these alternatives in complex relations to show how strongly they are expressing their words in very very subtle shades. This is what makes English such a rich language for literature or poetry, and in theory should give English speakers the capacity to learn other languages more easily. The Spanish word "Agua" looking almost like "Aqua" for instance, which is still a part of the English language today.

semihereWhat I would say in defence of English is that it remains remarkably complex mainly due to the fact that it was formed over centuries by various invasions of Britain (by everybody in Europe at one time or another) bringing new phrases, descriptions, words and syntax with each wave and each of these dominating forces has left it's imprint on English in the form of words still commonly in use today. So whereas some other European languages may only have a single word of description in their vocabulary, English typically can have six, seven, eight or more all derived from their original languages, be it Gallic, Latin, Greek, Germanic, Nordic, Celtic, Irish, Pictish, Briton. This is what helps to make English such a complex language to learn (along with its reverse sentence structure in relation to other European languages) - native English speakers tend to use these alternatives in complex relations to show how strongly they are expressing their words in very very subtle shades. This is what makes English such a rich language for literature or poetry, and in theory should give English speakers the capacity to learn other languages more easily. The Spanish word "Agua" looking almost like "Aqua" for instance, which is still a part of the English language today.

neat. i have never really thought about it from that perspective. i still disagree about how hard it is to learn other languages, though. the basic syntax of most other non-english languages is much more logical, from what i have seen. the sentence structure in english for a particular phrase is almost always different depending on what you're trying to say. there are so many rules, and even more exceptions to those rules. with spanish, etc there is just the few different ways to say what you want and there really aren't many exceptions to the syntax rules . . .

but yeah, the google translator works ok to try to figure out what people are getting at. however, i would discourage anyone from using it to translate what they are thinking of posting (tags, descriptions, etc) into english. it doesn't work well enough for that at all.

The way I see it, the problem is that most non-native English users (I for one) often have rudimentary vocabularies, while terms used when describing sounds are usually quite specific. Why should everybody know the correct word to describe the sounds made by (say) a pigeon, a trolley, or a toilet being flushed??? Why should everybody know the meaning of 'drone'??? C'mon guys, IMO this is a rather technical English which is beyond the basic knowledge of too many Internet users!!!

What I often do is an English/Spanish bilingual description. Represents no great effort, because it takes for me virtually no time to describe in my own language. I would encourage others users to do the same (English/German, English/French, whatever!!), its sooooo easy, please do, that may help a lot people!!

BTW, I certainly don't believe that English (or American) IS the language of the Internet. But even if it WERE, does that mean that it HAS TO BE forever? I dont think so, but some peolple seem to... Also, I wonder what position these persons will take when Chinese become the most used language, will they promote the use of minoritary languages such as English, or will they start learning Chinese right away?

Mandarin already is the most spoken language. However, they don't surf the web as much as English speakers. I must say that I'm impressed with most users non native English skills... but beware the Google Translator can make silly sentences! But seriously, I live in Florida so a lot of things are written in half Spanish/English... Es no problemo para mi! Escriba en dos idiomas!

its the main language and WILL ALWAYS be the main one in china. yes there are billions of chinese etc who speak mandarin but with that said

there aren't billions of chinese speaking it here in the states,uk etc.. so point being IT WON'T EVER BE THE MOST WORDLY SPOKEN LANGUAGE UNTIL THE CHINESE HAVE BILLIONS IN EVER COUNTRY AND ITS NOT THE MOST SPOKEN IN THE WORLD UNTIL EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVERYONE SPEAKS IT

and u know and i konw that ain't happening anytime this life time (stop..don't kid yourselves i can hear u now trying to make up a reason why it will happen)

I for one like debroide's descriptions. using two languages on this site is just fine "sound of a chicken / het geluid van een kip" is just a fine description, because anyone looking for "chicken" will get a hit!

Oh, yes, or even surreal ones. Please don't miss the review I link below of the SONY PCMD1: "Is, but it does the glove and operates, because the buttons excessively have not protruded, to operate, the づ leprosy." LOL, I love it, this was translated from Janapenese into ... WHAT? But you know, English is the language of the Internet